Goodbye, Bahamas! Hello, Charleston!

And we're off! Well...not so fast! First I had to untangle the anchor chain from a submerged casuarina tree. Then we had to adjust some settings on the autopilot and run a calibration (a.k.a. drive in a bunch of circles) since we were having autopilot issues on our way into this anchorage. But once that was done we were on our way around 1700 on May 1st! I provided a killer dinner of teriyaki wings and fried rice and we went right into the watch rotation (Frank 00-04, 08-12, 16-20; Jo 04-08, 12-16, 20-00; Trent wherever he can help out during daylight), sailing into the sunset!

Calibration worked and we have autopilot! And dinner! And a beautiful sunset!

The next morning we came off the bank and turned north into the Gulf Stream. We had great sailing and were making 8-9 knots over ground with the help of the stream. 

Sunrise and sunset at sea.

On May 3rd we had another great day of sailing, caught and lost a mahi, and had a tight flyover from a USMC Harrier jet.

Everyone stood some watch today! Too bad we lost this fish (out that little hole in the step!), but the evening was magical.

We finally had to motor a little bit during the night, but on the 04-08 watch the sails came back out so we could slow down to enter Charleston after sunrise. I managed to sail all the way up the channel and it was great! I also got to see the T/S State of Maine, the training ship from my alma mater Maine Maritime Academy, as we came up the river. We checked in with the CBP ROAM app, got some fuel and water at the city marina, and anchored off of Fort Johnson to wait out a stormy afternoon and night. 

Final sunrise of the transit and celebrating a successful homecoming.

This roughly 60-hour transit was really pretty nice. It's great to have made so much progress up the coast in such a short time, and to have done so much of it under sail. My emotions are all over the place. I know that our whole lifestyle as a family is about to change and I want to savor every last minute on the water, but at the same time I want to get to Maryland and get moving on the "next." But for now, we are here.

~Jo, 1st Mate